10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 23, 2016
Drowning: Incident occurred on an ebb tide Oveson: Her ive
Continued from Page 1A
Apparently, the other
child lost sight of the victim,
and about 10 minutes trans-
pired between the point when
both were safe, and the time
when the friend realized the
girl was in trouble. Accord-
ing to Johnson, the child
asked a stranger on the beach
to call 911.
According to dispatch traf-
ic, the reporting party said a
young girl, who was wearing
street clothes, disappeared,
and her companion believed
she had drowned.
Responders from Paciic
County Sheriff’s Ofice,
South Paciic County Techni-
cal Rescue (Surf Rescue), and
Paciic County Fire District
No. 1 raced to the beach. The
Surf Rescue team deployed
rescuers on jet skis, while oth-
ers served as spotters onshore.
The U.S. Coast Guard
launched a boat shortly after
the call came in and then
launched a second boat and
sent a helicopter to search for
the girl. Around 7:35 p.m., a
dispatcher reported that the
helicopter crew had spotted
the girl roughly 500 yards
north of the command post.
“They have a swimmer
in the water, performing res-
cue,” the dispatcher said.
Johnson said the Coast
Guard worked with Surf Res-
cue volunteers to bring the
girl to shore.
Paramedics
performed
CPR, and the girl was taken to
Ocean Beach Hospital.
Johnson said the girl was
still alive in the ambulance,
but died shortly after reaching
the hospital.
The incident occurred on
an ebb tide, when water was
still fairly high. It is likely that
the victim was in the water for
at least 30 minutes. According
to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration,
the water temperature at the
time was about 55 degrees.
Cormorants: ‘It’s a real mystery for us’
Continued from Page 1A
egg oiling activity. Echols said
the last time the agents were
oiling eggs on the island was
May 11. Agents were on the
water shooting cormorants on
May 16, she said, but they have
now stopped all culling activ-
ities because the number of
cormorants in the colony has
dropped below the level where
they’re required to stop.
“The disturbance resulted in
nest abandonment and the loss
of all the cormorants’ eggs by
avian predators like seagulls,
eagles and crows,” she said.
“We don’t know yet what the
cause of the disturbance was.”
Oficials didn’t see any evi-
dence of a coyote or any other
four-legged predator, but they
did see 16 bald eagles on the
island.
“Bald eagles are known to
signiicantly startle and disperse
nesting colonies,” Echols said.
“We don’t know if that magni-
tude of bald eagles could have
done this.”
Eagles may not be
responsible
Vocal critic
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
A double-crested cormorant rests atop of nest of eggs in
the colony on East Sand Island.
Bald eagles have been
blamed for decimating Caspian
tern and cormorant colonies on
the island in the past. But Dan
Roby, a researcher with Ore-
gon State University who has
studied the tern and cormorant
colonies for decades, said he
doesn’t think eagles could have
lushed so many cormorants off
their nests.
“I’m pretty conident that’s
not what caused the cormo-
rants to abandon the colony,”
he said. “We’ve seen that num-
ber of eagles out there before.
We’ve seen them killing cor-
morants on their nests, and
it doesn’t cause that kind of
abandonment.”
Roby said researchers on
his team did an aerial survey of
the island on Tuesday and saw
a large group of cormorants on
another part of the island. But
the nesting area was completely
abandoned.
“There were absolutely
no cormorants anywhere in
the colony,” he said. “It’s a
real mystery for us. It actually
amazes me that any kind of dis-
turbance — even people going
on the island if that’s what hap-
pened — could cause all the
birds to leave their nests with
eggs and then gather on the
shoreline as if they were afraid
to go back to their nests. It’s cer-
tainly unprecedented in all the
years we were out there work-
ing on that cormorant colony.”
Biologists investigating
Echols said about 4,000
birds have returned to the
island, but not the nesting area.
A team of biologists is investi-
gating what caused the birds to
lee their nests.
Federal agents have been
shooting cormorants in the
area and oiling cormorant eggs
on the island as part of a long-
term plan to shrink the cormo-
rant colony and reduce how
many threatened and endan-
gered salmon the birds are eat-
ing. They reported killing 209
cormorants between May 12
and Wednesday.
Oficials haven’t attributed
the disturbance of the cormo-
rant colony to any shooting or
Bob Sallinger with the
Portland Audubon Society
has been a vocal critic of the
Corps’ cormorant manage-
ment plan. He said colony fail-
ure has been one of his chief
concerns as federal agencies
shrink the size of the cormo-
rant population.
“When you do that, you
make a population extremely
vulnerable,” he said. “Regard-
less of whether this abandon-
ment was caused by eagles or
their own activities, the fact is
they’ve gone in there and delib-
erately decimated the popu-
lation. Federal agencies have
deliberately put the western
population of cormorants at
direct risk, and it needs to stop.”
Echols said federal oficials
are monitoring the Columbia
River estuary to see where all
the cormorants have gone.
Roby said it’s still early
enough in their breeding season
that the birds could still return
to their nests and lay more eggs
to avoid complete colony fail-
ure for the year.
state meet athletes
earned a few medals
Continued from Page 1A
coaching when I was in high
school (ifth- and sixth-grade
Amateur Athletic Union basket-
ball). I coached all through col-
lege, at an elementary school as
a PE teacher, and at the middle
school in La Grande.”
Oveson did some stu-
dent-teaching in Saipan, and
again volunteered her time to
coach.
“That was a fun experience.
I got to coach outrigger (a sea-
going canoe race), soccer and
football, and all kinds of crazy
things. If they needed a coach,
I was it. They have sports year-
round there. It was crazy, but a
lot of fun.”
On her return to the states,
Oveson coached volleyball and
basketball for a year at Jewell
High School.
Then, she was on to the next
adventure.
Commercial ishing
“I started commercial ish-
ing, and thinking that if the right
job came up, I would go back to
teaching,” she said.
Oveson just didn’t know that
the next teaching opportunity
would come from the irst email
in her inbox.
“I was in Bristol Bay, and I
had a day off, so I had a chance
to look at my emails (some
800), and the very irst one was
an announcement for 635 new
teaching jobs that I was quali-
ied for. The irst teaching job
was in Warrenton, Oregon, and
I was like, ‘Warrenton!? That
would work out well, because I
ish out of Warrenton.’
“The teaching job was for
science and PE, two really cool
things that I’m interested in. I
didn’t have my resume or my
teaching license with me (she
was still on a ishing boat in
Alaska), so I just sent an email
to Rod Heyen (the principal),
asking to put in my application.
“I gave him my satellite
number on the boat if he was
interested, and the next thing I
knew I was doing an interview.”
And the next thing Heyen
was doing was calling her back,
“because I was in between set-
ting on the boat,” Oveson said.
To wrap it up, Oveson got
the job, inished her summer
ishing, and arrived in Warren-
ton the irst day of school. “I got
off the plane at 5:09 in the morn-
ing, and school started at 7:30.
That was the most awkward
thing for a irst day.”
And, of course the story
of how she came to be a track
coach isn’t normal, either.
First practice
“Kersee Lind, the head
track coach, called me into his
room and asked me if I would
be interested in committing to
a coaching position with the
track team.
“I thought about it and said
I was interested. The next thing
I knew, Kersee was gone (as
coach) and it was mass chaos.
And Monday of the irst track
practice, they said, ‘Hey, the
job’s open, you can apply.’”
And just like that, Oveson
was named the varsity track
coach, literally the irst day of
practice.
And all in all, it hasn’t been
a bad season for Oveson and the
track team. Her ive state meet
athletes earned a few medals.
From Wallowa to Saipan to
Warrenton, the journey of life
is still in the early stages for
Oveson.
“I’m a big believer in things
happening for a reason, so it’s
been a good time for me,” said
Oveson, who plans on return-
ing to Warrenton High School
next year, after Alaska this sum-
mer. “I absolutely love commer-
cial ishing. It’s been a blast, and
(the teaching job) was really the
job I was looking for. Mr. Heyen
is one of the most supportive
administrators. The staff I work
with is phenomenal in helping
out new people.”
— Gary Henley
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